Skeptical Teens' Political Apathy Vexes Teachers

Sherrill Curtis is in the middle of his seventh presidential
election.

He talks about political strategy, spouts off about ideology,
lectures on turnout. But he is most familiar with an Election Day
outcome that doesn't get reported in the next day's news: the interest
level among the high school students he teaches--most of whom are too
young to vote.

Frustration pours out as Mr. Curtis, the chairman of the social
studies department at tony Providence High School outside Charlotte,
sums up the political interest among the public school's 2,500
students.

"Youngsters today are just not that interested in the elections," he
said between classes. "There's a feeling that the whole political
process is incidental--just another 'thing' in the overall culture.

"They've come of age in the post-Watergate, post-Cold War era of
political cynicism, scandals, and sound bites," he said. "And they're
skeptical, always asking 'What's the real scoop?'--assuming they're not
getting the truth in the first place."

Mr. Curtis' views echo those of many high school teachers, who, even
with carefully tailored curricula and a multitude of national programs
designed to fuse their students' young lives with politics, find it
hard to overcome the political apathy of many of today's teenagers.

With a metro-area population of 1.75 million, Charlotte is the
largest city between Washington and Atlanta. The banking industry in
Charlotte is in the leagues of New York and Washington, and the
breakneck pace of growth in the city and its suburban rings is evident
by omnipresent construction workers and bulldozers.

In Charlotte, and all through the state, the political season is in
full bloom. High-profile races for the U.S. Senate, Congress, governor,
and attorney general share the spotlight with President Clinton and Bob
Dole.

But despite the campaigning that began in the spring--and
youth-engagement efforts ranging from MTV's star-studded "Choose or
Lose" to the school-based program Kids Voting--teenagers here find
plenty of reasons to be indifferent.

In the library at West Mecklenburg High School, senior Tayvia
Spratt, 17, gives a puzzled look and thinks a second before waxing on
the 1996 election.

"It doesn't seem right," she deadpanned, "that behind the White
House--a phat house--there is a ghetto full of problems."

The inner city problems of Washington also play out in various
pockets of Charlotte--and offer little reason for faith in politicians
that ignore them, she explained.

"We have crime, homeless people, and girls having babies. But do the
politicians do anything about it? No. They just talk and talk and
promote themselves."

Ms. Spratt, who calls herself a moderate, said she would take notice
if politicians "did something real" to address the issues she sees as
most dire. But "they don't say stuff that really matters," she
said.

Lack of Charisma

She and other students here describe a field of "been there"
candidates running in major races who have failed to capture the youth
constituency.

In contrast to his 1992 race, when he donned star shades, played the
saxophone, and schmoozed with rock 'n' roll stars, Mr. Clinton appears
more staid and less hip, many young people here say. And many say that
Mr. Dole, the Republican challenger, lacks both the charisma and the
message that appeal to them. Statewide races, offer a similar pool of
older, mostly male, mostly "career" politicians, they say.

A recent Gallup Youth Poll found political apathy among teenagers
nearing that of the late 1960s and its "turn on, tune in, and drop out"
youth counterculture.

The poll found that of more than 500 13- to 17-year-olds surveyed,
only two out of three teens anticipated becoming regular voters, and
nearly half believed there was no reason to vote if you did not like
the candidates. One in four surveyed thought all politicians are about
the same. And one in four believed it really didn't matter who won a
local election.

As in the past, such detachment could play out at the polls when
these young people come of age, experts say.

Elusive Constituency

The youth vote has traditionally been hard to predict, and even
harder to rely on. Before the 1992 election, voting rates among
eligible youths had declined with every election since 1972, the first
year 18-year-olds could vote.

The 50 percent of eligible young people who voted in 1972 fell to 37
percent by 1988. But the 1992 presidential election was an exception.
More young voters--44 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds--cast ballots than
in the previous 20 years. (Overall turnout was 55 percent.) But youth
participation plummeted again in 1994, when not even a third of
eligible young voters cast ballots.

Many of the seniors in Charlotte high schools eligible to vote in
this election plan to do so, but with mixed emotions.

The excitement that West Mecklenburg senior Jason Roberts, 18, feels
about voting in his first election has been tempered this fall by the
predictability of the outcome and the rhetoric, he said.

It's not that he doesn't care, he explained. "It just hasn't been
very exciting." Candidates haven't reached out and addressed the things
important to him, he said, like employment, education and financial
aid.

"I've got college to worry about," he said.

Us Vs. Them

Teachers, politicians, and political activists are looking for a
solution. In public service announcements, teen icons like rock stars,
sports heroes, and twentysomething actors promote the idea that "voting
is way cool." And teachers are using curriculum additives like Kids
Voting, which districts in North Carolina and in 40 other states use to
teach young people about political issues and the voting process.
("Mock Elections, Voter Programs Seek To Plug In
Tuned-Out Students," This Week's News.)

But judging by the attitudes of many Charlotte students, young
people aren't responding.

Curtis Gans, the executive director of the Committee for the Study
of the American Electorate, based in Washington, says those worried
about such attitudes shouldn't be focused on why young people are not
interested. He asks, instead, "Why would they be?"

"Information doesn't breed affinity," he said. "There are bigger
things going on in the culture. Thanks to television, and the lack of
centrality of churches and other institutions, kids today are more
passive, more fragmented, more self-seeking, and more cynical than they
have ever been.

"And, in this election, there's nothing of consequence being offered
up to them. We have one party way to the right whose message has no
resonance with young people, and another without a durable message at
all."

Teenagers who become uneasy when they are asked about elections or
political parties end up using one word a lot: "they."

Steve Yanacsek, a 17-year-old senior at West Mecklenburg High with
black stripes dyed in his hair, is earnest as he explains that this
fall's political debate is "totally remote" from his day-to-day
life.

"They seem to be trying to make personal choices for people instead
of talking about stuff that matters, like crime and schools," he said.
"Just getting to school and surviving is a challenge here."

Violence is a big concern at the 1,500-student high school.

Classmate Alicia Byrd, 16, said she has little patience for most of
the backbiting and exaggeration that seem to go with any campaign
season. "They're going to say what they want you to hear, just to get
the vote" she said. "If they actually do something, then I start to
listen."

'Democracy Isn't Efficient'

Sonya McInnis, a social studies teacher at J.T. Williams Middle
School here, has spent much of this year focusing on the political
parties and process and hoping students will listen. One day recently,
in her final class of the day, she asked groups of 9th graders to
define the political parties and gauge how their own beliefs fit in to
the debate.

"What issues are most important? And why?" she asked the class. "Job
opportunity? Education for all? Crime? The budget? Health care? The
environment?"

"It can be tough," she said after class. "This generation wants
things in an instant. They hate to wait. If they can't see results
right away, they have no interest in what's being discussed. They don't
understand that a democracy isn't efficient."

A large part of the malaise may be due to the fact that many
teenagers are the children of parents who don't vote. The challenge for
educators is to overcome the likelihood that such lack of interest will
be passed on to a second generation.

For Betsy Williamson, the coordinator of the K-12 social studies
program for the 92,000-student Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district,
teaching students about the democratic process early is the best way to
break the cycle.

The district's goal, she said, is to "give kids the tools to cut
through the jargon and put things in context." This year, students are
learning how to decipher the hidden message in political ads, what a
"photo op" is, and how a political platform is decided, she said.

"We want to train students early to become literate voters," she
said.

The Kids Voting curriculum that teachers in the county have adopted
this political season allows students in all grades to go to official
polls on election day and cast a mock vote. Results will be prominently
reported by the local media.

The program is intended to instill lifetime voting habits in young
people and boost turn-out among their parents and guardians, who
accompany the students to the polls.

Jeff Williams, a 17-year-old senior at Providence High whose serious
demeanor and carefully chosen words defy his age, concedes that among
his peers "apathy is a problem."

"Kids feel like the issues have nothing to do with them, or they
think elections don't matter," he said. "And because the issues aren't
put in kid terms, it takes a lot of initiative on the part of a young
person to understand.

"Many aren't willing," he said.

Mr. Williams said he is encouraged by the efforts of programs like
Kids Voting and recent interest among his classmates in the school's
Teenage Republican Club, of which he is a proud member.

"I'm optimistic that the apathy can be solved," he said. "I read
Newsweek each week to keep up on things. I know most of the
issues involved in this election--education, crime prevention, drug
abuse.

"And I wish I could vote in this election," he added. "I really
think that's key."

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